Brokerages deploy next-generation core trading systems, with four major vendors dividing the market, each with their flagship products.

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Caixin Media, April 1 (Lin Jian, Reporter) The rollout of new-generation core trading system development by brokerages is still in full swing.

According to Caixin Media statistics, over the past six months, at least 15 brokerages have, one after another, officially announced related progress. The securities industry is promoting a transformation of core trading systems from a “big unified” model to a layered, scenario-based architecture. In particular, based on new-generation core trading systems, brokerages adopt approaches such as in-house development or collaboration with vendors to further refine needs for quantitative trading and to improve technical support systems across different levels and scenarios. This has become an important direction.

At present, the new-generation core trading systems mainly used by brokerages are partnerships with four vendors, including Hensong UF3.0, Huarui ATPT7, Jinzheng FS2.5, and Topoint A5. From a core capabilities perspective, the four systems achieve coverage of the entire market and multi-product business, and, supported by differentiated technical architectures, each has its own distinctive features.

For example, Hensong Electronics recently announced strategic partnerships with multiple brokerages such as Guosheng Securities, and the company is currently pushing forward with new-generation system upgrades and other key areas such as Shixin; Huarui Technology’s support for Guotai Junan and Haitong to complete the switch has drawn significant industry attention. It completed the integration of more than 100 IT information systems and, through 21 batches, fully migrated and switched over more than 20 million former Haitong Securities clients and related business data to the company’s already mature next-generation distributed core trading system. Jinzheng Co., Ltd. helps Huaxing Securities complete the full-stack Shixin go-live for all clients, all businesses, and the full trading technology for its new-generation core trading system, and so on—these kinds of updates are also ongoing.

Especially worth noting is that, after Topoint Software and Soochow Securities began exploring with the development and introduction of the new-generation core trading system A5 through collaboration, at the end of 2023 Topoint Software won the bid for the CITIC Securities A5 project. This cooperation is viewed as an important sign that core trading system upgrades in the industry have entered the pilot stage. In 2025, A5’s large-scale rollout has made new progress; CITIC Securities has successfully and smoothly completed a large-scale go-live, drawing renewed attention, and Everbright Securities has since joined in as well.

In the view of some interviewees, the securities industry is gradually shifting from a model dominated by single channels and agency-type businesses to a diversified development model involving multiple businesses and cross-market operations. Under the combined influence of digital transformation and the two-stage push for Shixin in infrastructure, building a new-generation core trading system that supports all product lines, delivers high performance, high availability, and secure reliability has become a key to brokerages’ digital transformation and competitiveness enhancement.

Reporter research found that there are four core drivers currently pushing new-generation system development. First, trading volume is moving from stabilization to expansion, and brokerages continue to increase investment in technical performance and user experience. Second, Shixin construction has entered the core system stage, with both investment scale and growth rate rising. Third, back office operations, clearing, settlement, and operations/maintenance are pursuing better quality and higher efficiency. Fourth, tools for new productive forces such as AI large models are accelerating adoption, promoting optimization of business architectures.

Among these, on the one hand, new-generation core trading systems are reshaping brokerages’ business processes. They support trading across the entire market, all businesses, and all product lines, and they provide 7*24 hour trading capability. On the other hand, during the construction of new-generation core trading systems, technical adaptation for quantitative trading has become an important direction. Although the industry has not made quantitative trading a dedicated专项 iteration direction for the core system, under the premise of improving the core system’s baseline performance and capacity, it is gradually building a differentiated technical support system for quantitative trading.

Industry participants predict that in 2026, more mid- and large-sized brokerages will carry out upgrades of their new-generation core trading systems, and in 2027, mid- and small-sized brokerages will complete the wrap-up of full-industry upgrades.

Adapting to different quantitative trading needs is becoming a trend

What drew attention first is that, in vendor collaborations—especially upgrades of core trading systems—brokerages are actively adapting to different quantitative trading needs.

Some industry insiders noted that the new-generation core trading systems being promoted in the market are positioned as a full-business foundational layer. The core goal is to enhance overall performance and capacity, ensuring stable and efficient operation of traditional core businesses such as brokerage (brokerage/agency), proprietary trading, and asset management. They only need to accommodate low-frequency quantitative strategies, which do not have particularly high latency requirements. High-frequency quantitative strategies and other professional scenarios with extremely stringent demands for low latency and high concurrency are carried by independent “rapid/fast trading” systems. Meanwhile, the new-generation brokerage business trading foundation layer, while providing services to support wealth account–driven business innovation, also clearly needs to support the operation of fast trading channels.

In terms of trading services, intelligent trading components and tools such as T0 strategies, order-splitting algorithms, intelligent conditional orders, and margin (two financing/two securities) calculators are being adopted more widely. This improves individual investors’ trading capabilities while also reducing trading risk.

This reflects a professional upgrade by the securities industry in serving quantitative institutional clients. Instead of using one single system to satisfy all quantitative needs, brokerages provide differentiated technical support based on the technical characteristics of different strategies (such as latency, throughput, and concurrency). This aligns with the extreme requirements of quantitative trading—especially high-frequency strategies—strengthens competitiveness in services for institutional clients, and also shows that quantitative trading has become an unavoidable core sub-field within brokerages’ business.

Distributed architecture is becoming mainstream

During the securities industry’s digital transformation, technical upgrades of core trading systems have become a key leverage point. Traditional centralized-architecture trading systems struggle to meet high-concurrency trading and fast-changing business demands. With distributed architecture becoming the mainstream and cloud-native approaches serving as an innovation exploration, this has become the evolution direction for new-generation core trading systems.

From a core capabilities perspective, all four systems support exchange-traded products and major over-the-counter market product types. Hensong UF3.0 covers 45 categories and 212 business items, and its special business endpoints focus on innovative areas such as cross-border Wealth Link and digital RMB. Jinzheng FS2.5 emphasizes over-the-counter derivatives trading and multi-entity management. Topoint A5 is the industry’s first all-in-memory, all-business trading system, building a “one cabinet通” business architecture. Huarui ATPT7 is specifically adapted for rapid trading scenarios, meeting execution needs for multi-asset and multi-market rapid trading.

From deployment case perspectives, applications of the four systems on the brokerage side have achieved both performance and business improvements. Hensong UF3.0 helps China Merchants Securities complete a full-volume switch for tens of millions of clients, enabling a transformation from trading channels to a wealth management engine. Jinzheng FS2.5 helps China International Capital Corporation Wealth Management roll out Shixin-driven next-generation core trading counters, building a refined capital and account management system. Topoint A5 reduces execution latency at Soochow Securities from 10ms to <1ms, and in 2023 achieved single-line operation for full-element Shixin. Huarui ATPT7 improves trading speed by more than 20 times for Guotai Junan, reduces trading latency for Guosen Securities to 50μs, and increases throughput by more than a hundred times.

The technical characteristics and deployment practices of the four mainstream products highlight five major features of brokerages’ core trading systems at present.

First, distributed architecture has become an absolute mainstream approach, and the design of distributed + microservices + containerization has completely shed the limitations of traditional centralized architectures.

Second, in-memory computing reshapes system performance. All-in-memory trading has become standard, enabling a leap in trading latency from the millisecond level to the microsecond and even nanosecond level.

Third, Shixin leads the development of independent and controllable capability. Domestic substitution has moved from being simply usable to being efficient and genuinely better. The degree of independence and controllability of core technologies continues to rise.

Fourth, deep integration of business and technology. The system design logic is gradually shifting from being transaction-centered to being customer-centered, while taking both wealth management and institutional services into account.

Fifth, cloud-native and elastic scaling become baseline capabilities. Systems can be expanded on demand to effectively respond to sudden surges in trading traffic and reduce overall total cost of ownership.

Four major trends—Shixin planning is deepening toward full-stack implementation

Based on the reporter’s research, the construction and upgrading of brokerages’ new-generation core trading systems reflects future industry development trends.

First, it is a key strategic arrangement to proactively respond to the national Shixin strategy and align with the industry’s technology iteration trend. The focus is on Shixin work for core trading systems in the securities industry, and more brokerages are expected to join.

With the deepening implementation of the National Strategy for the Innovative Development of Information Technology Applications, independent and controllable core technologies in the financial industry have become an important issue related to national security and financial stability. At present, new-generation core trading systems in the industry achieve full-stack Shixin—from basic software and hardware to application software—based on cutting-edge technologies such as distributed architecture, low latency, and cloud-native. They fully implement business-wide Shixin for modules including trading, clearing, accounts, funds, authentication, operations, data, and operations/maintenance.

Shixin support is also a shared feature of Hensong UF3.0, Jinzheng FS2.5, Topoint A5, and Huarui ATPT7. Domestic substitution has shifted from basic adaptation to full-stack deployment. Topoint A5 is an industry Shixin benchmark, achieving 100% domestically produced independent and controllable capability, and it has obtained certification for a Shixin typical solution from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Hensong UF3.0 has completed full-stack Shixin deployment in Founder Securities, implementing a complete application suite. Jinzheng FS2.5 is a native Shixin architecture, deeply adapted to domestic chips such as Kunpeng and Ascend. Huarui ATPT7 is jointly developed with Huawei Kunpeng and, in Guotai Junan, has completed the full go-live for Shixin across all clients, winning first prize in the People’s Bank of China’s Financial Technology Development Award.

Second, new-generation core trading systems bring safer, more efficient, and better-quality financial service experiences to a broad range of investors, delivering specific positive benefits to different investors.

For retail investors, improved system performance addresses trading lag and latency issues, and it can also ensure that instructions are executed quickly during peak periods. Distributed and cloud-native architectures make wealth management services more flexible. Upgrades in the response and adaptability of digital services such as intelligent investment advisers help support more precise asset allocation. Full-stack Shixin also protects accounts and funds by defending against network attacks and data leakage from the underlying layer. For institutional investors, the layered and scenario-based architecture adapts to diversified trading needs. Quantitative institutions can choose the corresponding systems according to strategies. With full-market and multi-product coverage, it enables integrated multi-asset trading and significantly improves trading efficiency.

Third, the deep integration of new technologies is pushing trading systems toward intelligent and fine-grained upgrades.

The incorporation of AI large models greatly improves the system’s level of intelligence. On one hand, it enables full-chain intelligent early warnings for trading risk. By analyzing trading data and market data in real time, it can identify abnormal trading and rule-violating trading behavior in a timely manner, helping brokerages and regulators achieve precise risk control. On the other hand, it can provide personalized investment advice and service recommendations based on investors’ trading habits, risk preferences, and asset conditions, improving the precision of wealth management services.

Fourth, it helps brokerages expand overseas and plays the role of core trading systems in international business layouts.

With explosive growth in cross-border trading needs such as those in Hong Kong stocks and U.S. stocks, and the continuing advancement of international business by Chinese-funded brokerages, shortcomings in the existing trading systems—such as usability, scalability, stability, and functional coverage—are gradually becoming more apparent. Meanwhile, the technical upgrade of new-generation core trading systems is specifically addressing these issues and meeting the increasingly complex global business development needs of brokerages.

Hensong Electronics’ overseas-controlled subsidiary Hengyun Technology’s new-generation global financial products trading and settlement system AlphaBroker3.0 has been fully rolled out for Guangdong Securities (Hong Kong) Brokerage Company, achieving full coverage of all product types in overseas markets and efficient trading. On March 25 this year, Jinzheng’s overseas subsidiary TTL launched the new-generation core trading system platform WinVest™R7. The system is fully adapted to Hong Kong and overseas securities market trading rules and business needs, providing strong technological support for Chinese-funded brokerages to “go global” and for business expansion by Hong Kong local securities firms.

(Caixin Media reporter Lin Jian)